Perkiomen Valley’s Nick Giangiulio, top, won the championship at 152 Saturday at the inaugural PAC-10 Championships at Boyertown. Giangiulio was the lone Vikings to win a gold medal. (File photo by Tom Kelly III)

The three, all juniors, were one of only two of their respective teams’ finalists, their only gold medalists, and certainly weren’t the center of attention outside their own circle of teammates and fans … not with Boyertown, Owen J. Roberts, Spring-Ford and Upper Perkiomen sweeping the remaining 11 individual titles during their down-the-stretch, afternoon-and-evening, all-out brawl for the team title.

But Perkiomen Valley’s Giangiulio, Pottstown’s Hain and Methacton’s Green, whose teams finished seventh, sixth and fifth, respectively, made a statement of their own while sweeping their brackets and impacting those final standings.

The 152-pound Giangiulio, who had lost just once this winter — 5-2 to state qualifier Austin Rose of powerful Central Dauphin during the Hecker Duals at Garden Spot — defeated Boyertown’s Gregg Harvey in the semifinals, then finished up with a decision of Spring-Ford’s Frankie Krauss in the final.

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“Not to sound cocky, but I felt pretty good coming in, and this is the toughest league in the district,” said Giangiulio (29-1), who’ll likely draw the No. 1 seed for this Saturday’s District 1-AAA West Tournament.

Most expected a showdown between Giangiulio and OJR’s rugged Kyle Shronk. But the ailing Shronk, who re-aggravated his shoulder injury during the state team duals, was forced to pull out after doctors shut him down for the season.

“I actually heard about it on Friday night, and it’s a real shame,” Giangiulio said. “I feel bad for him. Kyle’s a senior, a great competitor.”

Much like he felt about his own wrestling a year ago, when he came within a win of advancing to states — a position he put himself in by a turnaround of sorts.

“Every year I’ve been learning something here and something there,” Giangiulio explained. “Around the middle of last year is when it seemed I started putting all the aspects together. Now I just don’t try thinking too much, and take each match as its own competition.

“But (winning gold) is just my first goal. My ultimate goal is to get to states. I came so close last year.”

Hain now has an opportunity to go for a third straight district title at Spring-Ford this Saturday. The previous two were District 1-AA golds, or before Pottstown moved up into the AAA classification this year.

He opened last weekend with a pair of pins — the second a 38-second slap — then put together a major over Boyertown’s very good Cody Richmond in the final to improve to 31-2.

“I’ve stepped up a lot since the beginning of the season,” Hain said. “My confidence is pretty high.”

Winning 18 in a row as he has right now sure helps.

“I got a lot of help from the leadership in the (practice) room, from my teammates and from my coaches,” Hain explained. “They’ve motivated me more.

“The other big thing was I never shot the first month of the season. All I did was shrug. The coaches told me to start shooting more, to start opening up instead of relying just on the shrug. It’s helped.”

Being healthy has sure helped Green. An assortment of injuries didn’t get in the way of winning sections last year, but they sure did get in his way at districts and abruptly ended his season.

This winter, he’s only lost three times. The first was a 5-1 setback to Nazareth’s returning state runner-up Aaron Bradley during the season-opening Nazareth Invitational; the second a narrow 1-0 loss to freshman phenom Jordan Wood of Boyertown; and the third was by injury default to OJR’s very physical Brad Trego.

“I feel good now,” Green said after a bye, pin and major improved his mark to 29-3 and added up to the 285-pound title. “I’m not injured. I’m probably in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

“I’m very confident in myself right now. This is one of the best leagues in the district, and I feel like I executed. I’m pleased with the effort. But I’m in the same place as I was last year, so I want to keep it going. I want to make it to states.”

The one thing Green did leave with Saturday night was a little-known achievement he felt quite proud of.

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